Saturday, February 13, 2010

Fear itself

A couple years ago I watched a video commentary by Penn Gillette. He characterized Republicans as being motivated by FEAR and Democrats motivated by HATE-mostly directed at then President Bush. If he had said frustration instead of hate, I would have agreed with him.

Ideology and religion reflect our best and worst emotions. They can enable our prejudices by portraying those who are different as sinners or communists or ignorant. When our ideological or religious beliefs are seriously challenged, a flash of anger or hatred is quite understandable.

When Penn made his comments, a lot of non-Republican conservatives and libertarians were angry about big government getting even bigger and more obtrusive. Some conservatives were even outraged by two wars and the corporate welfare accompanying them.

I understand the Right's fear and anger at President Obama's economic stimulis programs, however the emotions I see and hear coming out of the Teabagger movement seems to be motivated by more than fiscal conservativism.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Rip Howard Zinn

It's not right to respond to terrorism by terrorizing other people. And furthermore, it's not going to help. Then you might say, "Yes, it's terrorizing people, but it's worth doing because it will end terrorism." But how much common sense does it take to know that you cannot end terrorism by indiscriminately dropping bombs?

HOWARD ZINN, Terrorism and War

Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country [America], for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home. It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria.

HOWARD ZINN, Terrorism and War